Background Childhood obesity affects an increased percentage of families globally. For families, obesity is often a tense issue, not least because of the negative stigma and cultural perceptions associated with it. Discussions around childhood obesity do not take place only at homes or in health care, but increasingly on social media, such as Internet discussion forums. On these platforms, parents, including those having a child with obesity, are exposed to cultural ways of framing childhood obesity, and defining who is responsible for children’s weight. Method We gathered and analysed 16 discussion threads on childhood obesity taken from a Finnish internet discussion forum, vauva.fi, between 2015 and 2021 (a total of 331 posts). For the analysis, we chose threads where parents having a child with obesity took part. The data were analysed and interpreted with inductive thematic analysis. Results In the online discussion on childhood obesity, the posts were mostly about the reasons and solutions for obesity, and obesity was discussed in the context of parental responsibility and lifestyle choices within the family. We located three themes that were used to define parenthood: being a good parent, being a bad parent, and being a blameless parent. Parents listed healthy elements in their family’s lifestyle to prove their good parenthood, whereas other commenters frequently tried to point out mistakes in the parents’ behaviour or offer advice. Moreover, many acknowledged that some factors causing childhood obesity were outside the parents’ influence. In addition, many parents brought up that they were genuinely ignorant of the reasons for their child’s overweight. Conclusions Our results showed that for the parents and other commentators childhood obesity is not only a question of weight and lifestyle changes. Instead, defining good of parenting and related tasks was a recurring theme in the discussions. Consequently, counselling for parents in health care should be expanded from supporting a healthy lifestyle to strengthening parents’ identity as being good enough parents. Furthermore, efforts should be made to increase parents’ self-efficacy. In addition, supporting parents to accept and process feelings related to the child’s weight would help them to adapt to their situation.

Objective: The objective of the systematic review is to identify, critically appraise, and synthesize the best available qualitative evidence on parent and carer experiences of health care professionals’ communication about childhood obesity. Introduction: Parents and carers play a key role in a child’s environment and healthy development, which is why they can find it confronting to discuss their child’s weight. This review will provide an insight into the experiences of parents and carers with health care professionals’ communication about their child's overweight or obesity. Inclusion criteria: This qualitative review will consider participants who are parents and carers with a child with overweight or obesity (birth to 12 years). The phenomenon of interest is parents’ and carers’ lived experiences of childhood obesity communication from a health care professional, and the context is health care settings. Communication includes verbal or written communication about a child's obesity from health care professionals received by a parent or carer. Methods: The proposed review will systematically search the following databases: MEDLINE (EBSCO), CINAHL (EBSCO), PsycINFO (Ovid), Scopus, LILACS, and the Finnish health sciences database MEDIC. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) will be searched for unpublished articles. A manual search will supplement the database searches. The quality of included studies will be assessed independently by 2 reviewers, and the qualitative data will be extracted from papers by 2 independent reviewers using the standardized JBI data extraction tool. The recommended JBI approach to critical appraisal, study selection, data extraction, and data synthesis meta-aggregation will be used. Systematic review registration number: PROSPERO CRD42022297709

Background Childhood obesity is affecting an increasing percentage of families globally. For families, obesity is often a tense issue, not least because of the negative stigma and cultural perceptions associated with it. Discussions around childhood obesity do not take place only at home or in healthcare, but increasingly on social media, such as Internet discussion forums. Our aim was to analyse how childhood obesity is discussed on a Finnish online discussion forum by parents of children with obesity and other commenters. Method We gathered and analysed 16 discussion threads on childhood obesity taken from a Finnish Internet discussion forum, vauva.fi, between 2015 and 2021 (a total of 331 posts). For the analysis, we chose threads where the parents of a child with obesity took part. The parents’ and other commenters’ discussions were analysed and interpreted with inductive thematic analysis. Results In the online discussions, childhood obesity was discussed mostly in the context of parenting, parental responsibility and lifestyle choices within the family. We identified three themes that were used to define parenting. In the theme of proving good parenting, parents and commenters listed healthy elements in their family’s lifestyle to show their responsibility and parenting skills. In the theme of blaming bad parents, other commenters pointed out mistakes in the parents’ behaviour or offered them advice. Moreover, many acknowledged that some factors causing childhood obesity were outside the parents’ influence, forming the theme of lifting the blame from parents. In addition, many parents brought up that they were genuinely ignorant of the reasons for their child’s overweight. Conclusions These results are in line with previous studies suggesting that in Western cultures obesity – including childhood obesity – is typically seen as the individual’s fault and is associated with negative stigma. Consequently, counselling parents in healthcare should be expanded from supporting a healthy lifestyle to strengthening parents’ identity as being good enough parents who are already making many health enhancing efforts. Situating the family in a wider context of the obesogenic environment could ease the parents’ feelings that they have failed at parenting.

Background: Childhood obesity is an ongoing concern affecting many parents. Discussions around childhood obesity take place increasingly on social media, such as Internet discussion forums. On these platforms, parents present their experiences and apply cultural conceptions of childhood obesity. Argumentation on the platforms may affect how parents of children with obesity perceive obesity and adopt childhood obesity treatment. By exploring online discussions on childhood obesity, we can better understand the overall cultural conceptions concerning childhood obesity and the related responsibilities. This understanding may be used in health care to develop parents’ counselling for children’s weight issues. Method: We gathered and analysed 16 discussion threads on childhood obesity taken from a Finnish internet discussion forum, vauva.fi, between 2015 and 2021. In the analysis, we focused on threads where parents having a child with obesity took part. The data were analysed and interpreted with inductive thematic analysis.Results: In the online discussion on childhood obesity, the posts were mostly about the reasons and solutions for obesity, and obesity was discussed in the context of parental responsibility and lifestyle choices within the family. We located three themes that were used to define parenthood: being a good parent, being a bad parent, and being a blameless parent. Parents listed healthy elements in their family’s lifestyle to prove their good parenthood, whereas other commenters frequently tried to point out mistakes in the parents’ behaviour or offer advice. Moreover, many acknowledged that some factors causing childhood obesity were outside the parents’ influence. In addition, many parents were genuinely ignorant of the reasons for their child’s overweight. Conclusions: Our results showed that childhood obesity is not only a question of weight and lifestyle changes. Instead, defining parenthood and whether parents had fulfilled their tasks properly is the core issue. Consequently, counselling for parents in health care should be expanded from supporting a healthy lifestyle to strengthening parents’ identity as being good enough parents. Furthermore, efforts should be made to increase parents’ self-efficacy. In addition, supporting parents to accept and process feelings attached to the child’s weight would help them to manage in the present situation.